The Visual Detective: An electrified, star-studded tribute

Connie Furr Soloman and Jan Jewell/HANDOUT

Connie Furr Soloman and Jan Jewell/HANDOUT

Jennifer Day

Next month HBO will air "Behind the Candelabra," Steven Soderbergh's much anticipated Liberace biopic featuring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. But in the meantime, we have "Liberace Extravaganza!" It's 223 beaded and bedecked pages dedicated to Liberace's costumes.

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It starts off with a short biography of Wadziu Valentino Liberace, born, as the book says, "the sole survivor of twins delivered 'under the veil' — encased in the delicate membrane of the amniotic sac." He went on from this well-dressed birth, which the book suggests was an "omen of greatness," to become a well-liked kid in his West Milwaukee neighborhood who loved to play the piano. It makes a compelling argument that everyone from Elton John to Lady Gaga likely emerged from one of Liberace's many capes — or his 1986 Radio City Music Hall Fabergé egg.

But this isn't a book you look to for deep biographical insight. It's a picture book detailing every last laced cuff, feathered collar and sequin-crusted boot. Short vignettes about the costumes' designers and the engineering that went into them often entertain, particularly the ones about Liberace's electrified costumes. One suit was studded with 640 lights; another was operated by radio control from backstage.

As the book quotes Morton Moss of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner in 1969: "Greater love hath no man for the theater than to risk electrocution in order to entertain an audience."